Windows 8/8.1 Media Pack with Windows Media Center to be discontinued October 30th

If you want to add Windows Media Center to your Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 system via the addon media packs that Microsoft sell you will have to hurry. Microsoft are discontinuing the Media Pack and Pro Pack which includes Media Center on October 30th.

It is not surprising that Microsoft have stopped selling the addon pack and you for while it will still be on sale via 3rd party retails. Windows Media Center is not part of Windows 10 so if you want some of it’s functionally on the new OS you are going to have to find an alternative (see my five alternatives to Windows Media Center for Windows 10).

About the author Ian Dixon:Ian Dixon is a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional), founder of TheDigitalLifestyle.com tech site and producer of the weekly The Digital Lifestyle Show podcast. Ian has been writing and talking about Windows for over 10 years and has over 20 years in IT as an IT Manager. Ian has thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook and over 4 million views on his YouTube channel.

One thought on “Windows 8/8.1 Media Pack with Windows Media Center to be discontinued October 30th”

People have already found they they cannot purchase the Media Center Pack (for those who already have Windows Pro) through the Add features mechanism. Problems started to be reported as early as September. At the beginning of October I spent 1 hour 25 mins with MS support who eventually confirmed that Media Center is no longer being offered, despite the Windows website saying otherwise. The following is from my chat session with 2nd line support.

> here’s what I found out
> it appears Windows Media Center is no longer being offered
> as all as upgrading to Windows 10 Media Center pack is phased out
> we cannot proceed in getting this product
> these are resource materials , since the release of Windows 10 July 31st Windows Media Center including product key are no longer being offered, I have checked our system tools to see if we can get a key but unfortunately there’s no option now

The only way for Windows Pro users to obtain a Media Center key is to buy a secondhand one.